Book 2 — ON A CATARACT[308:1]
Reading edition
ON A CATARACT[308:1]
FROM A CAVERN NEAR THE SUMMIT OF A MOUNTAIN PRECIPICE
STROPHE
Unperishing youth! Thou leapest from forth The cell of thy hidden nativity; Never mortal saw The cradle of the strong one; 5 Never mortal heard The gathering of his voices; The deep-murmured charm of the son of the rock, That is lisp'd evermore at his slumberless fountain. There's a cloud at the portal, a spray-woven veil 10 At the shrine of his ceaseless renewing; It embosoms the roses of dawn, It entangles the shafts of the noon, And into the bed of its stillness The moonshine sinks down as in slumber, 15 That the son of the rock, that the nursling of heaven May be born in a holy twilight!
[309] ANTISTROPHE
The wild goat in awe Looks up and beholds Above thee the cliff inaccessible;— 20 Thou at once full-born Madd'nest in thy joyance, Whirlest, shatter'st, splitt'st, Life invulnerable.
? 1799.
FOOTNOTES:
LINENOTES:
Title] Improved from Stolberg. On a Cataract, &c. 1844, 1852.
[
2-3
]
Thou streamest from forth The cleft of thy ceaseless Nativity
MS. S. T. C.
Between 7 and 13.
The murmuring songs of the Son of the Rock, When he feeds evermore at the slumberless Fountain. There abideth a Cloud, At the Portal a Veil, At the shrine of thy self-renewing; It embodies the Visions of Dawn, It entangles, &c.
MS. S. T. C.
[
20
]
Below thee the cliff inaccessible MS. S. T. C.
[
22-3
]
Flockest in thy Joyance, Wheelest, shatter'st, start'st.
MS. S. T. C.